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How about a quick link? You can probably find one smaller than this one that's still plenty strong.

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

You have said that the ULBA is a little short for you. Maybe add an extra foot or so of fabric to the overall length and it may fit you better. I'm about 5'10" so the ULBA fits me fine.

Yeah...my homemades are 10' long and they work great for me with Jeff's design. If the Hennessy-style gets as flat as you say, though, I could probably go shorter than that on one of those. Somewhere between 10' and the production ULB length.

"Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

Simple question - what are the tradeoffs between using a zipper versus velcro for the bug netting?

Here's my initial take on the trade-offs"

Cost: the Velcro would be much cheaper is my guess. I haven't priced zippers in years.

weight: the velcro would be lighter.

ease of use: a. The velcro can be a pain to line up to close, but b. can be opened at any point without having to start at the end like a zipper. Opening at any point could be important if you only wanted a small opening, e.g., to stick your arm out. c. the Velcro would be harder to close properly after getting into the hammock. d. the bug netting could possibly get caught in the zipper and cause damage to the bug netting. e. The bug netting could get hooked by the hook side of the Velcro and possibly damaged in dis-engaging.

maintenance: zippers can jam and lose teeth, not often but Murphy's Law states that it will happen at the most inconvenient time. Velcro is fairly maintenance free - just make sure that the loops are on the hammock body and not the hooks.

Comfort: Velcro backing is fairly rigid and this may irritate.

Other points to consider?

Anybody with experience either way?

Would the new Omni tape be better or easier/better than traditional Velcro (if you can find a source)?

You can put two sliders on the zipper so you can open it at any point. Not quite as flexible as velcro, but close. (Check the TravelPod zipper pics if that's not clear.)

Long pieces of velcro are a pain to line up, IMO. Sometimes in the PeaPod I get a little "bubble" on one side and have to realign the whole thing. And that big piece of velcro takes a lot longer to close than a zipper. The velcro would be easier to use with winter gloves on, though...might be a consideration if you're putting on a winter top cover instead of a bug net.

I'm not sure about the weight - I bet a #3 zipper and 1/2" velcro are pretty close in weight. Should be pretty easy to find listed weights for that.

But velcro doesn't jam, doesn't have sliders to break, etc.

Re: velcro vs omni-tape, they both work about the same until the velcro hooks get clogged with lint. Omni-tape doesn't get snag on lint and fleece, but it will stick to itself so unbundling a wadded up bugnet might take an extra minute...no big deal.

IMO, there are as many pros to cons for zippers and velcro in this application, so it just comes down to personal preference. I'd probably choose a zipper if I were doing this.

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

Simply sewing webbing along the side for tie outs doesn't accomplish the second purpose. Rather, in that case, the angle formed by the hammock body at the tie out would be totally dependent on the position of the stake.

The reinforcing material forces the angle to be the same irregardless of exactly where the stake is positioned, within rather large bounds.

I think the reinforcing material acts somewhat like the structural ridgeline. The ridgeline determines the amount of sag. The reinforcement at the side tie outs is a major factor in determining the exact asymmetrical shape of the hammock.

Simply sewing webbing along the side for tie outs doesn't accomplish the second purpose. Rather, in that case, the angle formed by the hammock body at the tie out would be totally dependent on the position of the stake.

The reinforcing material forces the angle to be the same irregardless of exactly where the stake is positioned, within rather large bounds.

I think the reinforcing material acts somewhat like the structural ridgeline. The ridgeline determines the amount of sag. The reinforcement at the side tie outs is a major factor in determining the exact asymmetrical shape of the hammock.

Speaking from my experience with my tarps, I have a somewhat different take. I'm not sure the reinforcement patches really have much to do with the shape - if I pull obliquely on the tie-outs on my tarp, it doesn't get as flat. I think the patches might help, but they don't do that much. Of course, the situation with the HH may be very different than that with my tarps, simply due to material differences. But if I had to guess, I'd say that the patches on the HH are mainly there to reinforce the tie-outs, and more importantly to spread out the force on the bugnetting - the same reason I use corner patches on my tarps.

"Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson

Unlike your tarp, the reinforcement patch is sewn so that it's a 3D shape. It probably makes some difference...keeps the hammock at the same angle as of the bug net. But with weight, even that patch will deform and won't hold the angle exactly.

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story